WTC til Amsterdam 2020?

[Svenne]

Dear WTC-Community!

It has been a very long time now we have not revealed anything about our plans for the WTC 2020 and there are some reasons why

Maybe for you in the past it was like for us and at some point in time you asked yourself: "why is WTC always hosted in Germany/Herford?". Sure the answer is pretty easy: TG PLAY! is putting a lot of effort to offer the best possible tournament experience for you guys 😇.

But can´t TG PLAY! do that in some other country as well? This made us think for quiet some time already even before last WTC. Fortunately we got in touch with some other amazing TO team from the Netherlands (hi @Alliance Open - T9A - Sorcerers and Skeletons!). The first time we went there we kind of fell in love with the conditions at the venue they used and we very much liked how they shared our vision of hosting outstanding events.

After a second visit and some talk about the actual conditions we got more and more convinced that it might be worth a try to cooperate and bring WTC to Amsterdam!

Since the food there was actually on a completely new level (absolutely outstanding international buffet with more different food than one could try within three days) and a hall of 2000sqm (200sqm more than the Herford Ice-Skating-Rink) abvailable including all tables and chairs already on site, it became more and more appealing to us to put together a possible event outline outside of Herford .

But as you know us all this alone is not reason enough to change a running system. We listened to our players during the last events and the common issues with our events have been:

- no easy access to Herford by plane
- no proper hotel close to the venue
- Herford not being a proper city for the post-game nights out

To put things in a nutshell now on how an event in Amsterdam at Van der Valk Hotel could solve the issue:

- The A4 hotel is 10 Minutes away from Schiphol International Airport with free shuttle busses all 20 minutes.
- The A4 hotel has almost 500 rooms for imo very good prices (will add the current "package-prices" later that would apply for the event) including pool and gym.
- The A4 hotel is 15 mintes away from Amsterdam City center and thus via bus and taxi you have easy access to one of the biggest party-areas and one of the best cities for nights out in Europe.

So pretty much the advantages of WTC in Amsterdam would be:

- cooperation with Alliance Open!
- amazing food via buffet in an outstanding restaurant
- cheap flights from all around the globe via Schiphol International Airport (one of the biggest in Europe)
- Hotel in site including shuttle
- proper WiFi
- best option for parties in Amsterdam

As you all will expect there is always a need for some compromises compared to Herford and i´ll of course be super honest. This is what players have to compromise on when we move WTC to Amsterdam in 2020:

- as always lunch and drinks will be included (at even way higher quality!), but: beer has to be paid for on top (we can ask for a flatrate-price, just do not want to put it on everyone). No waffles (but you can not imagine how amazing the desserts for lunch are!) and breakfast (but it will be kind of included in your hotel-room-arrangement either way and breakfast is ace as well).
- no option to sleep for free at a gym
- overall the event will be more expensive per person (explaination later in the text)
- only basic "giveaways" will be included to keep the entry-fee low. In exchange Alliance Open will offer the option to buy unique "loot" with the event-tickets

We tried as hard as possible, but there is no way to have it all without cutting some stuff.

To make the outline finally as transparent as possible i would like to point out the financial part a bit. Since we are looking for a three day-event this time to make it worthwhile even for guys from overseas, the participation fee would be:

140€ pp on Early Bird and 145€ pp lateron. This will include general participation, basic "giveaways", lunch and all drinks (tea, coffee, water, soft-drinks).
For sure this is kind of double the price of a 2-day event in Herford, but the quality of tables, chairs, venue in general and especially food and drinks will increase by more than that.
For transparency-sake i´ll explain how we got there:
Instead of a rent for the hall the hotel charges 37,50€ per person per day for lunch-buffet and all drinks, what makes it a total of 112,50€ per player. Renting tables costs 10€ per player. This leaves 17,50€ - 22,50€ per person for the TO to work with to cover all other costs like media, prices, trophies, giveaways, prints, website etc etc. Clearly and with full faith i can say that nobody will make any relevant or serious money with then entry fees - i´ll personally not allow that WTC loses his spirit on that at all .

I know well that the entry fee alone is often not what makes the total cost of a trip to an international event. To make the trip doable for the teams there are "packages" for hotel rooms Van der Valk offers for the event. Usually breakfast-buffet alone costs 16€ per day. This is what we can offer for the event:
2-person-room: 130€ per night (65€ pp) including breakfast
3-person-room: 150€ per night (50€ pp) including breakfast
4 person-room: 160€ per night (40€ pp) including breakfast

given the hotel is top quality and you can use pool and gym as well the prices are pretty reasonable .

Last and very important information: atm we are looking for hosting the event from Saturday to Monday 09-11.05.2020 (we were looking for one week earlier, but the hall was not available that date). The date we have been offered today for the first time, so we still have to think about it ourselves.

For sure there are reasons for TG PLAY! and for me personally to chase this idea. Workload and the cooperation are for sure the main differences. Last WTC´s pretty much pushed the TO´s to their limits and we need to find solutions as well to be able to keep WTC going at all ... we can not proceed with more players and less and less volunteers to do the heavy lifting :/

Well, that has been quiet a wall of text but finally i can come to my initial questions for the poll below:

Would you be happy with WTC happening in Amsterdam in 2020 under the conditions explained above (we will of course assure all efforts we put into the event before will be transfered to Amsterdam as well! 😎) or do your still prefer sticking with the Herford Ice Skating Rink with the former conditions (changes will be made as well, since we want 3 days for sure).

We would be happy if as many players as possible will answer the poll asap! (this will be forwarded to the 2019 WTC captains as well soon and we will ask them for detailed feedback)!

Thx for reading and see you at WTC in 2020 (one way or the other!)

[Svenne]

Amsterdam lyder tramp!

[Azrael]

Amstertramp!

Bliver en dyr miniferie dog

[Zephyr]

3 dage - sejt nok.

Lidt pres at prisen stiger 2-3 gange samme år som etc rammer Luxembourg.

[kristoffer lotr]

Man kan stemme på at de skal holde det i Herford

[van der loo]

Ja det er lige dyrt nok for mig når jeg også vil til ETC, så springer nok WTC over hvis de ender på den pris

[Svenne]

MARK THE DATE!

WTC OPEN 2020

Amsterdam

09.-10.05.2020

5 Games, Teams of 5